LINN^US. 97 



gerlng and painful were the last twelve months of 

 his existence ; but at length, on the loth January, 

 1778, he gently expired in his sleep, in the seventy- 

 first year of his age. The death of Linnaeus was 

 regarded, in Sweden, as a national calamity. The 

 whole University went into mourning, and all the 

 professors, doctors, and students then at Upsala, 

 attended his funeral. The king, in his speech to 

 the States in the same year, publicly lamented his 

 death, and ordered a medal to be struck in his 

 honour; and in 1798 a monument was erected to 

 him in the cathedral at Upsala, where he was 

 interred. 



Such a life needs but little comment. It speaks 

 for itself to the youth leaving school and knowing 

 not what to do, to the young man struggling for 

 existence and position, to the middle-aged man in 

 his wealth and influence, and to the old man who 

 cares to leave a good name behind him. 



ir 



